BOOM TOWN: Springfield becomes vital to the Civil War effort

Gordon fileSpringfield could outfit Union volunteers from head to toe and take care of all their weapons needs.

By the late spring of 1861 the stars were aligned for Springfield to play a major role in the newly born Civil War.

Already at the crossroads of major east-west and north-south rail lines, home to more than 200 manufacturing concerns, and designated a rendezvous for troop recruitment and training, Springfield’s position was solidified with the fall of Harper’s Ferry. The Springfield Armory was now the last federal arsenal in operation. The former commandant of that facility, Col. James Ripley, had been named Chief of Ordnance for the United States Army.

Since he spent 13 years at the Armory, from 1841-1854, and was responsible for most of the major building there, including the massive the arsenal with its clock tower and storage area for thousands of arms, Ripley was well aware of the capacity of that facility and other private manufacturers in the area. He also had the nation’s checkbook at his disposal. And he wasn’t afraid to use it.

Springfield & The Civil War

We at The Republican are launching a four-year project to tell the story of how our community coped with 48 months of war, from April of 1861 to April of 1865.

On the first Sunday of each month we will run a report of what was happening here 150 years ago during that month.

For the Union soldier Springfield area merchants and manufacturers could supply their every need, from the clothes on their backs to the shoes on their feet, to the military muskets and personal pistols to the swords at their sides, to the candies and gum they savored. There were railroads and steamships for transportation, cannons and howitzers for annihilation, and fireworks for recreation — all locally made.

In 1861 the Brigham brothers received an order for 60,000 uniforms for the war effort that they made at their Main Street Springfield store. The D. H. Brigham Company made nearly $500,000 in one year of the war. L.C. Smith was advertising lace boots under the headline, “ATTENTION SOLDIERS, “ after which he added the comfort and durability of his footwear “cannot be surpassed.”

Several photographers were advertising their studios for soldiers’ portraits. These would often show the wooden handle of a small pistol peeking out from a belt or sash. Chances are that it was a personal sidearm made by Smith & Wesson. These small caliber weapons were often given as gifts to departing soldiers. When the war started Smith & Wesson went from making 40 revolvers per day to 2,500. By war’s end the company sold 111,149 pistols out of their Stockbridge Street factory and shops licensed by them.

Many Springfield residents made the short trip to Chicopee to work in the Ames Manufacturing Company . In June of 1861 Ames received an order for 17,000 swords from Ripley’s Ordnance Department. They also manufactured howitzers, mortars, cannon, and various projectiles. But it was the Civil War sword that made the company famous.

fileCol. James Ripley

When it came to weapons manufacturing and its impact on Springfield nothing was more important than the Armory. At the beginning of the war in April there were 250 employees turning out 800 guns a month, within a week of the bombardment of Fort Sumter that jumped to 1,500 and by the end of the conflict, 2,600 workers were making 3,000 guns a month. One in every four men in Springfield worked for the Armory by the time the war ended in 1865.

The Republican reported, on June 1, 1861, that there was still “an undue proportion of foul weather, and the farmers are greatly behind in their spring planting.” The newspaper explained that “a wind of uncommon severity, taking on the form of a severe tornado, and doing considerable injury to trees, fences and houses” visited parts of New England.

Despite the talk of tornadoes, or how entertaining the circus was the night before, or the fact that clam chowder, fresh shad and innumerable delicacies were being served that night at Evans’ Union Restaurant, the number one topic was the war and that lack of action between the soldiers of the North and South near Washington D.C.

The men of the 10th Regiment who had been occupying the barns and sheds at Springfield’s Hampden Park for more than a month were, according to The Republican, “murmuring at the indifference with which they have been treated by the state authorities.” The boredom of camp life and their anger over not being called to the front was about to turn to humiliation.

The soldiers, including the Springfield City Guard, were ordered to turn in the Armory muskets they had been issued the month before and they were taken to the state arsenal in Cambridge to be distributed to Boston area units being equipped for “actual service.”

“There seems to be need enough of soldiers at Washington; but the road thither from Massachusetts is blocked by Boston,” The Republican reported on June 3.

On the next day the newspaper ran a story on the death of Stephen Douglas, whom The Republican referred to “as a man of great power.” His famous Lincoln-Douglas debates were recounted and he was credited with offering the President “his hand a friendly counsel” before leaving Washington. What the newspaper didn’t report is that Douglas’ reconciliation with Lincoln to help solidify a nation about to go to war was actually the work of Springfield Congressman George Ashmun, a long-time friend of both men.

fileSketch of Springfield Armory work place during Civil War

Just a few days after the degrading incident of having to give up their arms to Boston, the local soldiers at Hampden Park were notified by the governor that they would be among the volunteer companies called up for a three-year enlistment as part of Lincoln’s call for another 75,000 men. The Western Massachusetts regiments would most likely be armed with English Enfield rifle muskets purchased by state authorities from Great Britain.

“These rifles are much like those made at the U.S. Armory in Springfield , and were modeled originally after them; but they are not, on the whole, considered so good an arm as the American,” the paper reported.

It wasn’t only the men who served, or wanted to serve their nation, who were angry over decision by the government. The Republican carries a humorous item aimed at the women who wanted to serve under the headline — PRETTY WOMEN AT A DISCOUNT:

“For the first time since Eve ate the apple, her daughters are regretting that they are fair. It has been decreed by the powers that be, that none but plain women, and those over thirty at that, shall be accepted as army nurses. And even these are to be rendered more unbecoming by the abolition of hoops and the adoption of a regulation dress. Nothing has been said as yet about the shaving of the head and the style of hood to be worn, but it is expected the authorities will attend to these little items next...”

A “pretty woman” who stated her case was quoted as saying:

“Handsome women are in dismay. The Ladies’ Relief Association refuses all volunteer nurses except plain ones...Beauty is to stay at home and scrape lint!”

On a more serious note, The Republican ran several articles on Gen. Benjamin Butler’s holding escaped slaves as “contrabands of war” and using their services to support the Union war effort. It was obvious the subject stirred the newspaper’s long history of antislavery. This issue would divide Northern politicians but it would not go away and eventually led to the first steps towards emancipation. The Republican pointed out that “the destruction of slavery should be one of the penalties of continued rebellion.”

Butler was the Massachusetts general from Lowell who commanded the first trainload of troops to head for Washington. On their way there he stopped in Springfield in April, shortly after Fort Sumter’s fall, and gave a rousing speech to thousands gathered at the railroad depot.

Readers of The Republican were treated to a story on June 8 that must have lifted their spirits. Commanding Gen. Winfield Scott, at a Washington dinner party, told those present that our soldiers were fighting against their brothers as he was against many friends of his own in the south and he wanted to “shed as little blood as possible.” He added that he would be in command of 80,000 troops in a few days and predicted the rebels would be so hemmed in that “in ninety days the active contest would be ended.”

General Scott was only off on his timing by about four years, but his hopes for as little bloodshed as possible was even further off the mark, by about 620,000 dead soldiers. But that was in a future known only to those who can look back in time. The citizens of Springfield were reading of rumors that large bodies of troops were gathering at a place called Manassas Junction or Bull Run.

Patriotism was at a fever pitch and by the end of June there was a growing number of ads in the paper touting The Glorious Fourth and the importance of buying lots of fireworks because “THE UNION MUST BE SAVED.”